


Brave, and Braver Still

by marchionessofblackadder



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Once Upon a Time FriendShip Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-01
Updated: 2012-01-01
Packaged: 2017-11-20 12:53:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/585635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marchionessofblackadder/pseuds/marchionessofblackadder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prince Charming and Belle the Beauty have more in common than they realize.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Brave, and Braver Still

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt requested by Harlistiltskin for FriendShip Week.
> 
> Goes along with my theory that Belle is the female Prince Charming, so it's no wonder Rumpelstiltskin digs them both ;)

Storybrooke’s police station was easy to miss if you didn’t know what you were looking for, but luckily, Belle had asked Ruby how to find it. She was also fortunate to have found a friend with an enthusiastic capacity for helpfulness, because the napkin, on which she had drawn a little map, that Belle had at first refused ended up coming in handy. “If you’ve reached the marina, you’ve gone too far” was her indication to start looking closer at the buildings when she saw the boats and heard the gulls a block away. But, she was able to find the stout little building and hurry inside before the cool, windy day began to mist and left her chilled, tucking her white paper bagged parcel in her arm more securely.  
  
Inside, the building was quiet, and Belle felt like she was snooping somewhere she wasn’t supposed to be, the sound of her heels clicking on the tile seeming too loud. The feeling wasn’t unfamiliar; the knight’s daughter had a hard time feeling as if she could ever fit in anywhere in the sleepy little town, except her library. But, she knew if she let those feelings govern her, she’d never be accepted in the tightly knit community; with that initiative fresh in her mind, Belle took a deep breath and bustled down to the end of the hall where the windowed wooden door deemed in block black painted letters she would find who she sought.  
  
David Nolan, sheriff of Storybrooke and Prince James of the Enchanted Forest, sat behind glass partitions that sectioned off a makeshift office from the rest of the station. His plaid button down shirt was rolled up along his forearms, and Belle took note that his firearm was secured in its holster, hung on a coat rack near the door. She knew Rumpelstiltskin owned a similar weapon. He’d told her once it was more deadly than the weapons of the old world, and had not needed to persuade Belle to steer clear of it after that.   
  
Taking a deep breath, she stepped inside the threshold, clearing her throat quietly.  
  
The prince looked up, blue eyes as wide and clear as the wintery sky just outside the windows. Belle smiled sheepishly, biting her lip. “Busy?” she asked, wincing at the idea that he no doubt was. He had an entire town to run, after all, and no ordinary town. She imagined a magical town was more than a handful or two.   
  
“Between my power hungry, scheming father and trigger happy Regina Mills? No, not at all,” David muttered, looking back down at the paperwork in front of him. At Belle’s hesitation, he rubbed his face with both hands and sighed softly, “...I’m sorry, that was impolite.”  
  
“It’s okay,” Belle shrugged, smiling a little easier as she stepped into the office, offering him the white paper bag. “Here.”  
  
David looked up, glancing between her and the parcel before taking it uncertainly. “What’s this?”  
  
“Lunch. Ruby told me what you like. I thought it was the least I could do for you coming to my rescue at the library that night,” Belle explained, twisting her fingers and wringing her hands in front of her. Her foot wobbled beneath her a little nervously, standing in the cold, quiet office, and she batted away the butterflies in her stomach.  
  
The small smile that slowly spread across the prince’s face warmed her from her toes to her cheeks, and he sat back in his chair. “Thank you,” he said, so sincerely touched that it gave Belle pause to wonder if anyone appreciated the amount of work he did for them. She couldn’t imagine trying to focus her attention on everyone else’s problems, especially after everything he’d been through with his own loss.   
  
Belle ducked her head in a quick bobbing nod, and as she turned to leave, David stopped her. “Wait, uh- you want to stick around?” The librarian looked up, caught between surprise and puzzlement at the sheriff’s spontaneous invitation. “I mean... the only time I really get to sit down and have a conversation with anyone is when I go into the diner. Here, I’ll even split the meal with you.”  
  
“Oh,” Belle smiled shyly, hesitating before walking in and sitting in the chair before his desk. With a quick shrug and a nervous flail of her hands, she nodded. “Alright.”  
  
David made quick work of the wax wrapping around his sandwich, and offered half of it, swathed in a napkin to Belle, who took it with cold fingers. The quiet was awkward once she’d seated herself, anxious, and made her a little queasy in the pit of her stomach. She wanted to say something to break the tension, something perhaps to take the prince’s mind off his responsibility and see what he would look like if he relaxed for a moment or two. She didn’t talk to many people outside the small circle between the library and the diner, and the longing to find a bit of kindness in another person weighed heavily in her chest.  
  
“How are you acclimating to the town?” David finally asked, his eyes studying the lettuce and tomato between the wheat bread in his hands. He could feel the tension, just as much as she could.  
  
Belle gave the question serious consideration, before her smile brightened her face. “I do love my job,” she admitted, rolling her feet back and forth beneath the chair. Her fingers plucked at the crust of the bread, dropping it into her lap. “It’s something to do, and I like feeling useful,” she blushed, her eyes studying her knees resolutely, her voice trailing off into a mumble, “I haven’t... really felt that way before.”  
  
She could feel him watching her but did not think it was unkind. She knew the difference, being seen with Rumpelstiltskin, after all. People looked at her, even though she glanced up sometimes and could only see a hairstyle or a retreating coat, Belle knew when she was being whispered about. She’d caught the words “odd” and “funny” on occasion, and it didn’t bother her so much, because she supposed they were true. She was shrewd enough to know that Rumpelstiltskin was not a man most people would desire for company, and her taste was no doubt called into question. She could see Ruby’s own doubt whenever Belle mentioned him meeting her for tea or lunch. But she knew that the prince wasn’t looking at her that way.  
  
“That’s wonderful,” David said, quietly with a hint of a smile. “You’re making a difference.”  
  
Belle looked up, then, a nervous smile curving her own lips. “Oh, I don’t know about that,” she said, nibbling on the corner of the ham and swiss confection, rolling her eyes. “I hardly know anyone, and the library isn’t exactly bustling and busy.”  
  
“You’re making a good impression on me,” David said with an easy shrug, and the stunted little laugh it produced in Belle freed up some of the tightness between them. He smiled, leaning his elbows on the desk. “You’ve given Ruby another chance to find happiness in herself, and... well, I knew what Rumpelstiltskin was like without you,” the prince cringed, adding, “Good for you, by the way.”  
  
“I was only his maid,” Belle said softly, finishing a bite of her sandwich and patting her mouth with her napkin. Fondness warmed her cheeks at the memories of hot tea and loose curtains, prowling about a spinning wheel and the moment he caught her from uncovering a mirror. “And his friend.”  
  
“A brief light, maybe?”  
  
Belle looked up, her eyes widening. “What?”  
  
"Sorry, it's nothing," Prince James waved a hand in front of him, but at Belle's expectant gaze, he took a deep breath and elaborated, "Before the curse was enacted, Rumpelstiltskin and I...had our differences. But he told me he'd been in love once," the prince smiled as if the memory held no little amount of warmth for him, "He called it 'a brief flicker of light in an ocean of darkness.'...and I think that if you has enough love in your heart to tame that kind of beast, you must be more powerful than you realize."  
  
Belle blinked dumbly, a knot forming in her throat before her eyes dropped down. "Oh," she whispered. To know you were loved, adored, cared for was one thing. To hear that you were someone's hope... "Oh my," she touched her lips, fearing a smile as much as tears. After an awkward pause that had Belle attempting to school her features into a calm smile instead of a simpering school girl (which didn’t work), she dared a glance up, tilting her head, “Can love be a kind of power, you think?”  
  
David took a loud, wet crunch of his sandwich, mulling the question over. “I was told it was,” he said after swallowing, quirking an eyebrow at her. “I guess it depends on how you use it.”  
  
“I don’t think I’m powerful at all,” Belle admitted, picking the lettuce from between the bread and dropping it into the napkin.  
  
“Perhaps brave, then.”  
  
Belle hid her smile in her sandwich, her toes tingling in warmth inside her heels. “Brave,” she echoed, her cheek twitching pleasantly. “Yes, perhaps that.”  
  
There was a moment of quiet that settled between the two, and David slowly sat back in his chair, taking a deep breath as he ran the palms of his hands over the wooden arm rests. “It’s not easy,” at his companion’s questioning look, he added, “Being brave.”  
  
“I don’t think it’s something one ever really _is_ ,” Belle said slowly, looking down at her feet where her toes turned into one another. Her face was warm, but she wasn’t uncomfortable there in the little room, because she spoke of things she knew and understood in a world that would never be hers. “It’s a choice...someone who’s brave today can be a coward tomorrow. You-you have to decide for yourself,” she said finally, her voice gaining momentum. Her fingers curled into the bread, pursing her lips, “You have to decide where you put stock of your fear, in the end. I think it’s more about containing what frightens you, rather than rallying your courage.”  
  
The prince smiled wanly, rubbing his hand along his jaw as he looked out the window. “Not something easily done.”  
  
“No,” she allowed, shaking her head, choosing her words with care and speaking them slowly. “You know...Ruby told me the stories. How you and Princess Snow met and fell in love, how you saved your kingdom and risked so much for her. Your wife.”  
  
David didn’t say anything, his glassy blue eyes trained resolutely out the window.  
  
“I do... love him,” Belle said, small-voiced and watery, wrapping her trash up to toss in the garbage bin. She dusted crumbs half heartedly from the pleats in her skirt. “But I would be lying if I said...” The prince looked at her then, and Belle smiled apologetically. “I’ve never known a man like you, you know. And it’s not just that you’re brave. You’re good...and you believe in it. Even-even my fiance, he was a knight, but he wouldn’t even stand for me. I had to stand on my own.”  
  
“I’m not what you think I am, Belle,” David said quietly, folding his hands in front of him as if he forgot where to put them. “I can’t even take care of this town, the people I care about and swore to protect.”  
  
Belle frowned stubbornly, her eyebrows furrowing in agitation. “They’re so used to having those in charge play a game, use them as pawns, but you’re trying to lead, not use. People in this town think that power and aggression are interchangeable with courage, but that’s not true. Power changes people,” Belle ducked her head, whispering. “And never for the better.”  
  
The prince winced at the words, looking down at the top of his desk. “It does,” he agreed, his lips hesitating on the edge of words as if he was struggling with what he wanted to say and how to say it. “But I don’t think it’s necessarily bad. I’ve learned, at least, that leading people means I have to make difficult choices, and it’s not always easy. I mean, there will be people unhappy with me, but I have to do what I think is right,” David glanced at Belle, his blue eyes unsure yet hopeful. “And maybe that’s another test of our bravery-to put trust in others to find the courage to do the right thing.”  
  
A laugh broke from her lips and eased the deep seated quiet between them, the tension dwindling like a fizzing spark as Belle slowly stood up, smiling, “I think you’re confusing bravery with patience, Prince James.”  
  
David winked. “I’ve found they go hand in hand,” he pushed himself up from his desk, and, grabbing his jacket, walked Belle out of the station, for which she was grateful as the dim hallway did not look the same as it had when she’d tottered through it earlier. A cool, misty breeze met them as they opened the door, David leaning casually against the glass as Belle stepped out, buttoning her coat. “And you know,” the prince said lazily, his eyes drifting down the street where their town lay so deceptively peaceful. “It’s a shame your knight and your...whatever Rumpelstiltskin _is_ didn’t have the courage for you, in our world,” he gave her the kindest smile Belle had ever received. “But that doesn’t mean its not possible to find it here.”  
  
Belle shrugged gently, threading her fingers together. “That’s true.”  
  
“But you’re braver than any knight or sorcerer, Belle,” David said quietly, giving her a meaningful look that stopped her in her tracks. He nodded firmly, once. “They might not have stood up for you, but now you know you can stand up for yourself. A sword and a shield, even magic, doesn’t make bravery,” his fingers thrummed over his chest, raising his eyebrows to her. “It’s here.”  
  
Belle’s lips parted, the corners of her mouth turning up ever so slightly, but she found she had nothing to say, so pleasantly taken with the words. Instead, she pressed her lips together in a tender smile and ducked her head, hiding the blush in her cheeks. “Thank you,” she murmured, and watched as he gave her a parting smile before walking back into the station.   
  
Belle bit her lip, hiding the words within her heart, and nodded to herself again, deciding that she believed it to be so: the humble shepherd would truly make a great king.


End file.
